Love Is Blind
by Yopkyu
Summary: The invisible line that distinguishes morality and humanity; they slowly fade, the world of Aincrad cleansing the boundaries of the reality that people used to believe. The world doesn't care for you, and suddenly you don't care about the world either.
1. Chapter 2

Dear Reader,

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Hello, as you probably all do not care, you will not read this, and for those who are reading this, well it's either because you reading for one reason or another that I cannot fathom. I would like to let people know some things in this first page, or 'chapter' as fan fiction calls it.

First of all, this is a SAO, (Sword-art-online) fan fiction for short. I have read most of the light novels, and the first two which are related to this world, the Aincrad. I do not intend to introduce any material from the other volumes, because they technically aren't Sword Art Online, if that makes sense.

Based on the fact on how easily Kirito, and a few other people (but still mainly Kirito), plan to make a story where his reactions towards events have a more negative impact on his character. So, I'll probably follow the canon at the start and then eventually branch out into an AU, because to be honest, I don't want to destroy Aincrad, it's an awesome place.

Secondly, this is written solely dedicated to satisfy my addiction towards SAO, and story plots and other possibilities that did not happen in the story, and I don't mind people help with the creative juices to keep this story flowing. I will probably write from Kirito's POV... mostly and maybe from Asuna... Also, after watching the anime after reading the light novel, wow, there was a big difference. When I read it, the romance hinted between the two was wayyyyyy stronger... or maybe that's just me.

Thirdly, I will probably not proof-read this, as everyone knows, editing your work is extremely boring and it is rather hard to pick up on mistakes. So I just PM, flame, and rage at me when there are mistakes, I am willing to correct them, and try not to make them in the first place. Speaking of which, maybe a beta reader?

Fourthly, anyone unfamiliar with the gaming terminology, you can obviously Google, or if you want to take a longer approach because you can't be stuffed, you can PM, e-mail, (and/or leave a review ^.^) so that I can answer your question, which will be posted here as a dictionary so it's all in one place. Also, if anyone thinks there needs to be a rating change, let me know...

And lastly, updates will come on an unscheduled basis, as school and work is tiring, but argh, need to enjoy my hobbies.

I will only do the disclaimer once, on this page, this very day, to this very moment, ugh… I don't own Sword-Art-Online or any of that characters used, they belong to Kunori Fumio.

Enjoy.

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**CHAPTER 1-Genesis**

In 2008, Kazuto, a mere child was adopted into the Kirigaya family by Kirigaya Minetaka and Midori. This child lived oblivious until 10years later, in 2018 when he learnt of his biological parent's death, and that the family he has lived with, his mother, father and sister Suguha.

The invention of the nerve gear eventually led to the creation of VRMMORPGs, Virtual Reality games, where the person is able to dive into an alternate world where everything is controlled by the nerves. Sword art online was created along with this new advancement in technology and the beta version was released during August to September of 2022. Kirito was one of the beta testers, and once the game was released, he already had an advantage.

Unexpected event for the players, Akihiko Kayaba, creator of the game trapped the players inside the game, such that their characters in-game became themselves. They could not log out, and they only had one life. Death here really meant death. Shock took over people over this news as chaos ensued.

When finally people accepted the facts, Akihiko Kayaba successfully created a new world, rather than a game.

And so, the new beginning of the lives of 10,000players started…

...

Kirito had been assisting Klein in getting the basics straight, and essentially spent his first full dive in the first VRMMORPG helping his first official in game friend kill a boar, a wild creature that was the equivalent of slimes or rats of the so many other MMORPGs that existed before the creation of the nerve gear. SAO, short for Sword Art Online was a world similar to any other fantasy RPG, except that it lacked magical and ranged abilities, so players can only focus on their swordsmanship (and swordswomen) skills.

As luck might have it Kirito was selected to play in the closed beta, and out of the entire population of Japan, only a thousand were selected, give or take as public statistics cannot be that accurate. This gave him the advantage of having more experience in the game. His original plan was for to zerg, to race ahead of everyone the moment the game started, however, with a new player coming up and greeting him. One thing led to another and instead in the end Kirito chose to help him.

The first level of Aincrad was sort of like a beginner world, where the mainly forests, mountains and grasslands made up most of the landscape. It was a friendly introduction to the newbies who just started the game and allowed them to get used to the full dive before they had to interact with the harsher levels, like a sugar coat to what the game actually had to offer.

As of now the sun has begun to set. The time in this world is similar to the one in Japan, as the server was located there, and even without looking at the in-game time they were able to tell that it was about time to log off. To leave this virtual reality and head back to what was 'real'. To eat dinner with their families, do some homework and unfortunately 'go to bed' early due to the curfew set by their parents, which no one actually follows.

The sun left a nice warm feeling that made people feel eerily calm. The sky was painted in a red and pink hue as half of the sun was below the horizon, leaving a bright yet visible semi-circle of light which normally would have been too bright to look at. A light breeze blew across the highlands of the grassy area, and seemed to leave a flying 'footprint' onto the wild ankle deep-grass, allowing people to trace the pattern of the wind. The air unpolluted by any industrial waste left it unnaturally clean.

However, this was all 'fake', and Klein had to return to the real world.

"Hahaha…" Klein laughed pausingly, as he searched for the logout button on the screen in front of him. "Haha, there is no logout button."

"Eh?" Kirito was sure that it should be just in the options tab, however, when he searched for it first hand it was evident that the logout button was amiss. He also noticed that there was no emergency logout in the manual or many of the options that should be there. In a state of confusion, Klein started shouting out words, flailing his arms around over his head, hoping that somehow he would log out.

_Maybe it's just a bug?_ Kirito thought. However the ringing of the bell back in town seemed to divert his attention, its sound resonating throughout the entire level, normally this would be physically impossible, however this world was a digitally encoded world made by numbers, codes, equations and such so it wasn't so weird.

Before they knew it they've been forced to teleport back to the very start of the game along with the other 9,998 players. Whispers and murmurs of confused people filled the encirclement of buildings. The giant fountain in the center of the square seemed to freeze and fall silent along with the noise, as a clear distortion of the air signifying to the most experienced RPG players that some form of barrier had materialised around the vicinity.

Suddenly the sky bled red, it flowed down and seemed to form a floating blob of thick blood, before it began to morph into a figure of the grim reaper. There was a ripple of disbelief as the crimson giant introduced himself as Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of this world.

Everything was explained.

There was a moment of silence as everyone registered the information that had just been given to them. After it was registered there was a pause while it was processed, and another before everyone broke into pandemonium.

Then came the incoherent shoutings and cries. Denial was a celebrity, curses and shouts. "Let us go back" or "you can't be serious, that's illegal!", such things along those lines were said, but all fell deaf onto the creators ears. Kirito, suddenly assuming his real appearance like everyone else, was evaluating the 'truth'.

_If what he said was true then…_ It was beyond clear. Evidence all pointed that what had been declared was true. If you die here, you die in the real world. Essentially this was now the 'real' world. Any thoughts about the original 'real' world was meaningless at best, what originally was real, became fake, and what was fake became as real as it can be. Any thoughts about the bodies on Earth would be horrifying. How long would it take to clear all the levels of Aincrad? There were 100levels, with the ultimate goal being the Scarlet Jade Castle. It would stand there looking down upon everyone as they struggled to free themselves.

Considering the time it took to clear a level in beta and the change of circumstances in the actual released game… then what would happen to their bodies in the 'real-now-fake" world, would their bodies on Earth die? Emergency procedures would most likely been carried out, or going to be carried out, hospitalizing the 10,000 players.

_What if all this was fabricated? What if we die here, would we really die? What if time here was an instant in reality?_ Questions endlessly circled through Kirito's head, all of them were questions without answers as no one would know for certain that what was said was true.

_Mother, father… Suguha… I promise I'll make it back alive. _It was a promise that Kirito made to himself and swore to keep. To go back home and thank his parents, even though they were not blood related, for adopting him, for raising him, and for his sister.

Due to strict family reasons Kazuto and Suguha had both been forced to take kendo classes. However Kazuto didn't wish to live his life this way. So his sister took his role, promising their uncle that she would try two times as hard, to achieve two times as much. Such a burden he put on his sister's shoulder and Kazuto hadn't done a thing. He avoided the sister which he loved so dearly, unable to face her, and created a character in another world called Kirito, unoriginally named after Kirigaya Kazuto, 'Kiri' from Kirigaya and 'to' from Kazuto.

_I promise I'll make it back, and do what I should've done a long time ago…_

…

_I ran, leaving behind the first person I have met. But it was ok, he said that he had a guild to take care of, other people waiting for him, Kirito already offered his hand. That being said, it meant that it was ok, and… I'm not actually ditching me but rather the other way around?_ Kirito's heart was at unease, with his status as a beta player, he had valuable knowledge and experience, and thus it was the equivalent of him leaving a new-born behind to fend for itself… almost. The constant struggles of guilt and repentance dug deep within his chest.

Such build up emotion was finally released when he was able to fight, to _slaughter_ little Nepents. He managed to arrive at to the next town earlier than the other players so the mob population or POP, was extremely high in the surrounding area. Although it would have been extremely easy to farm as they were common weak mobs, however, he just started the game, but he left the beginner city still at level 1 by using known safe routes he had learnt as a beta tester to rush to this new area. Accepting a quest to help a sick NPC, a non-player character which were controlled by an AI script, he began his first official grind, relentlessly killing the Nepents and hoping to forget about leaving Klein behind. The drop he needed was a 'Little Nepent's Ovule' in order to receive the quest reward, an 'Anneal Blade', which he calculated would have enough durability to last him most like around till the third floor.

He horizontally slashed the Nepent from left to right, and it slowly dissipated into polygonal fragments before fading out. He levelled up quite a bit and began to distribute his skills before he was startled by the presence of another player.

_Beta tester_ was the instant assumption Kirito made, without a single trace of doubt. It should have taken at least another couple of hours before the arrival of other players. The two soon discovered that they had both accepted the same quest, and only one could achieve it as the quest they were currently on could only be completed once. In the end Kirito decided to work together and help each other out.

""That's good to hear. My name is Coper, I'll be in your care for the time being." The beta tester introduced.

"Kirito," was the curt reply. Something instantly went amiss though as Coper somehow recognised the name.

"Just where have I heard of Kirito before…?" the man whispered to himself.

Kirito quickly tried to derail his thoughts by claiming he must've meant someone else, however suspicion and wariness continued to linger in Coper's eyes. "Let's get the ovule before the other players get here!"

The two became completely focused on the hunting of the Nepents, waiting for one of them to drop the ovule. The hunt was going smoothly considering the undeniable skill showcased by Coper that all but confirmed Kirito's suspicions that he was a beta tester.

After the long grind Kirito finally picked up the ovule that he had set out for. Even though they could not feel the physical exhaustion of their would-be bodies their mental strength was drained.

Suddenly Coper turned around.

"Sorry…"

The single word left Kirito confused, until he noticed the Nepent that Coper had just slashed was something that should be avoided, especially when the POP of the area was still so high. The fumes released by the Nepent that Coper slashed caused all the other surrounding Nepents to help their fellow comrade gathering around Kirito and Coper.

_Why?_ Kirito still had yet to accept the fact that if you died in Aincrad, you die on Earth, but had he not already given up such thoughts have not risk dying here? Eventually the movement of all the Nepents caused the sound of cracking twigs and rustling of leaves, which signified the Nepents drawing closer, causing Kirito to face his current predicament. Coper had vanished but Kirito instantly knew what he was doing. If it wasn't obvious enough Coper was trying to kill, even though Kirito's naïve part of his mind hoped that it was a mistake, using his hide skill said otherwise and leaving Kirito in the midst of the slaughter.

Such tactics of gaining and misusing the trust of other playersto rob them of the valuables they had gained through hard work, was normally looked down upon in society, but Kirito understood this world where scams were of daily occurrence. Because the scammer himself would have had to put in a lot of effort to maintain the fraud and such to trick the other player, scamming is often viewed as an unofficial skill.

Leading a player into a dangerous area to make them die was a common tactic used by scammers. However in this world it meant that you actually lead that person to their death.

_Would people go to such lengths? _The question was answered by an unsaid 'yes'; it was a simple rhetorical question. In a way Kirito was almost glad that he could hear the cries and pleas for mercy and aid of some sort, which he could only ignore as he himself was stuck in the same situation. Coper's plan had a flaw and it was that hiding is no use to creatures which didn't have any eyes. So his plan backfired on him and Kirito was thankful for this as Coper was able to divert some of the attention off

S_tupid Stockholm syndrome_.

Out of the two fighting for their lives, only one survived.

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**AN:**

Also, this is a rather short chapter and I will hopefully make all future chapters longer, thus meaning that this by no means is a one-shot... just in case someone thought so.

Also, Also I scrapped the first person Kirito POV, I'll just do whatever seems to come to mind!

Proof-read by Skyonyuu

* * *

Coper: Mwahaha, all your items belong to me!

*Laughs like a maniac*

*Slaughtered by Nepents*

Coper: Ughh urrrr uauhauhhh

Suguha: Onii-Chan... o.O

Kirito: Su-su-Suguha!, why are you here?!


	2. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 2- Red Cursor**

A cloaked figure, around the size of a young male adult or teenage was looking quickly to its left and right at the unexpected mass of people.

_What just happened?_ The figure thought to itself. One moment the figure was wondering the awe inspiring landscape of the first level of Aincrad, the next she was suddenly teleported back to the beginner town. Concluding that it was some sort of opening event the figure calmly stood there drowning the mass's endless questions.

During the explanation of the reality of SAO, the figure's cloak suddenly became seemed a bit oversized and everyone had abruptly reverted to their original appearances which were determined by their genetic coding, in other words, their 'real' appearance.

Yuuki Asuna was the name of the cloaked figure, the daughter of from an extremely well off family. Her family had been large and rich for generations, and competition between cousins were extremely high. Family meetings occurred frequently, and such gatherings would lead to parents boasting about their child's achievements like it was their own.

Thus meant the families were extremely strict. For Asuna, that was indeed the case, from early childhood; her parents had made her work relentlessly to pass exams to get into prestigious kindergarten. One failure would mean jeopardizing her entire life, her mother would do things beyond reasonable to get Asuna so make up for it.

One day, her brother Yuuki Kouichirou brought home the new VRMMORPG, Sword art online with all intentions of enjoying the grand opening and the starting of a new game, however unexpected business calls led to him unable to attend this event and rather letting the opportunity go to waste, Asuna decided to except her tiring life and maybe enjoy something that she had never tried before.

In her current state of mind, putting on the nerve gear and going into full dive was the most regrettable thing she has ever done.

_Trapped in this world? What about her real life? What about her family? What's going to happen… will I die here?_ The oversized cloak managed to conceal her shaking pitiful shaking figure. This new reality was so sudden her mindset was so fragile, anyone could break her. She was just a plant that just sprouted from the seed, vulnerable without any forms of protection from any possible predators.

In front of her, she saw two teenage boys, one was obviously just as shaken as her, however the other one seemed rather calm given the current situation, in his eyes were calculation and of acceptance, something which Asuna could not do.

The next thing she noticed was that the square was as empty as it could get. With the exception of a few children undoubtedly under the age limit to undergo a full dive and a few other people who were crouched on the ground and retreated into a deeper mind state of shock than her, she felt like she was the only one left. She seemed to be the only one that could think, like she was looking over the entire place. That of course was due to the fact that she started moving from the spot where she probably hadn't moved from for at least a couple of hours, or so it felt.

Asuna's shady getup led to isolation in the noob city. Players currently in this city were still trying to accept the full scope of things. She had managed to lose herself in the maze of the buildings and surrendered to camping in the dead-end alleyway.

_Why? Why me? _ Asuna cried over and over to herself. _It's not fair…_ She continued to sob. Asuna wanted to return to her normal pedestrian life.

A week had passed, a whole entire week, and she had done nothing but sulk. Cramped up and coiled into a ball she hadn't moved a pixel from her spot. Fortunately, the weather was not controlled by Mother Nature but by scripts written by someone, which Asuna was grateful for. Her eyes ran out of tears on the first day, lest the world be flooded.

"Hah...aha," it was a hollow laugh_, _one that was never heard, but always there. Maybe if she didn't stop her tears, then people could float up to the Jade castle on level 100. It was such thoughts and dark little jokes - that when she thought about weren't so dark – kept her brain from collapsing.

Even though one did not have food in world, it does not mean they would die, in fact, it would be possible to not have food at all in this world, however the nerve gear would transfer the message 'the body does not have enough food to sustain the body' and such so one would feel extremely hungry. Even if the option of 'pain tolerance' was set to a minimum, it was impossible to turn it completely off and neglect such feelings, which Asuna had done

_I can't believe that my studying habits are actually useful in real life for once…_

…

Then it dawned on her. _Real life._

Yuuki Asuna, a top grade student, coming from a prestigious family, accepted into the most highly ranked schools, thought that SAO was real life, when had she come to terms that such reality - that the world Aincrad was just as important as Earth?

Eventually giving in to her more primal urges to sate her hunger, she unwillingly stood up using the wall as her support, and went to search for an exit through the web of buildings. The loud town square (or circle) guided her in the general direction of where she needed to head. The populace of the area was still surprisingly large.

_I guess I wasn't the only one…_ She thought to herself.

"Ugrr…" racing to put her hands over her stomach in vain attempt to muffle the noise, she quickly glanced around to make sure that she was not heard. Thankfully, the world seemed to move on as if nothing happened.

The town center had seemed to turn into a marketplace, with some of the people who had hunted a bit outside the security and safety return to sell their loots. Shouting and bargaining wasn't as loud as some street stalls in Japan, but maybe that was because most of the professionals who were experts of the game most likely have continued on deeper into the game, and the merchants who made the real bucks were also elsewhere. People left here were either beginners hoping to gain more 'col', the currency in SAO, or scammers, trying to con people their starting money, as beginners were the most easy to scam due to the fact that most people left behind lacked experience in games and such dealing.

Asuna walked around the place, all the sellers goods were laid out on a carpet in front as they looked for buyers, and shouted things about their cheap prices. Asuna doubted that anything sold was good of value here, and despite reading the starting manual for the basics, it did not include anything about player to player interactions, so Asuna decided, rather than being risk being scammed, she would just buy stuff from NPCs, non-player characters.

After getting directions to a food store, kindly pointed out by a random player, she stumbled through the door uncharacteristically, and quickly stiffened her spine, making her snap straight as the few people in the store's attention was kindly all laid upon her.

As quickly as she had gotten the attention, she had lost it. Walking up to the NPC store owner, a list of items quickly appeared, being glad that it was optional to talk to NPC as her throat had no strength to produce any understandable noise.

The list was sorted through popularity, and the prices were too high for her. Groaning in disappointment, she decided to filter the list another way, via price. By doing so, she noticed that the first item in stock, black bread was available for 1 col only, and it had a decent amount of stock, and the durability, or expiry date of the goods were an entire 2 months. Deciding on this, she brought out the entire stock for an extremely low price.

The stony steps that lead to what she assumed was most likely a vacant house as no one could afford to buy one yet - became her current picnic area. Opening up the inventory, she quickly materialised the black bread, and took a bite.

_No wonder it was worth only 1 col…_ she muttered in her head, yet her stomach quickly accepted the offering with delight. If this had not been a game, she would be on the verge of death from hunger, and if she did not had the 'pain tolerance' set to a minimum, she would most likely be unable to move due to the cramping stomach and constant pains that came with malnutrition. With a few more pieces of bread entering her body, the system registered her as no longer 'hungry'. Her stomach no longer felt like it was caving in and forgetting about the taste of the… 'Thing' as Asuna decided to call it, for even plain bread had more flavour.

Look up at the sky, she built up a resolve, a primary goal- to clear all these levels, if this world didn't have school, didn't have technology like cars, no air conditioning or heaters, no computers, but instead had things that would normally be associated with fantasy, such as dragons, goblins and kobolds, they things were real now, and no point crying over it.

_Wouldn't it be disappointing to know, once the game was cleared that I did nothing at all to contribute?_ It was probably due to her the way she was raised, that she couldn't let her pride be damaged like so, thus, after gearing herself up with the remaining money she had, she took her first step outside of the starting city.

…

People always told Asuna that she was a quick learner, and after a half a week on non-stop grinding, endless slaughtering of the wild creature that roamed the wilderness, her stats and levels were extremely high, however Asuna didn't think so. She felt still felt weak, vulnerable. Even though sleep for the past few days did not register in her dictionary, she felt like she was still behind all the people who had raced off ahead from day one.

She didn't know it herself, but her level was almost as high as the top player at the moment, however due to this being her first time an MMORPG, her knowledge was limited. Thank god that this game had a high skill cap, thus the mobs' AI was extremely simplistic and predictable.

The dark sky was lit by the nebulae of stars that stretched from the north horizon to the south horizon. The random placement of stars, each with a different colour and size of glow that made up the sky with the full moon that seemed to close a spectacle that would not have existed on Earth. On the edge of a forest and grassy plains was a figure that wore what once would have been a decent black cloak now tattered and worn; the oversized hoodie shaded her face with a dark shadow, hiding her face. The only thing visible was the eye whites hazel eyes. Asuna leaned forward towards the tree, using one of the arms as a cushion from the tree trunk and head.

Asuna quickly shook her head vigorously trying to overcome drowsiness. From overhunting, the POP of the area was extinct and would not reappear for a while, thus Asuna was gladly able to finally head back to town. From the constant hacking and slashing, for her beginner broadsword which was meant to be disposed of as soon as an opportunity came- the durability was extremely low.

In a way, Asuna was glad that the population of mobs in the nearby vicinity was such that none could be spotted. Her virtual body may not need the sleep or rest, as your 'physical' wellbeing is determined by a health bar, counted by numbers; however the mental exhaustion that came along with days of sleep deprivation could cause anyone to fall unconscious.

Asuna's vision blurred for a moment just as rustling in the trees could be hear. In vain attempt at refocusing, she looked around hoping to find the source of abnormality, however heavy eyelids shut down upon her pupils. Turning around using the tree to support her, she slowly slumped down towards the ground. Suddenly a hiss of a dart flew overhead, just managing to pin the top of her hoodie to the tree before the durability of her outer garment dissipated into blue polygons. Her butt hit the dirt.

_Whoa, that was lucky… _A lucky situation in due to an unlucky circumstance, in the end a positive and negative still make a negative.

Movement of probably two people - as Asuna predicted – could be heard, cussing of statements such as "how'd ya miss that" and "yur useless." Asuna cursed herself, her mind was working way too slowly to think quick enough and she pretended to play dead, however when she submitted to closing her eyes she could not open them again, darkness faded into her consciousness.

"Well, lookies, whadda we have here."

…

Darkness enveloped Asuna's surroundings when her blissful rest was disturbed. The 'room' if you could call it that was a small circular chamber most likely located somewhere deep within a cave. The room was almost like a jail, solid rock encaged the inhabitants of the unfortunate people, the only exit lit up by one small candle which seemed to be a boulder that could only be possible moved is if someone was standing on the other side and moved it sideways.

Inside trapped were a total of four inclusive. The other three were all males, of all three age groups.

A child, who seemed to be beyond frightened; the poor kid was dressed with a plain green t-shirt and a matching pair of shorts with a darker shade for the shoes which seemed too modern for the time and age of the game, most likely as he did not had any gear and had his default appearance which was determined at the character selection page. He was cuddled into the sides of an elderly man, who was clothed in a grey woollen jumper and cotton pants which seemed a bit worn. He too seemed to not have any gear. The two were obviously related as certain physical traits were visible in the younger counter part.

It wasn't then that held her attention, it was other man, most likely in his late thirties or maybe early forties. His constant leers towards, undeterred by the fact that his arms were tied behind his back and legs were roped as well, completely freaked Asuna out.

Dust started to fall from the cave roof, it seemed like an Earthquake, but the entrance of sunlight from the exit could only mean that it was opening. It also allowed her to assume that the chamber they were currently in was the entire cave, as she spotted the blue sky before squinting and turning away from the sudden contrast in brightness.

One man, cloaked in a brown coat with a dark tan colour hoodie underneath walked in while the other stood lazily at the exit. His face was revealed for all but Asuna to see has she only got a quick glance at the side of his face before he turned to face the middle-aged man, that meant either he was extremely confident and stupid or he wasn't planning to let them go from whatever plans he had- most likely the latter.

"Ok, ya'll been given two days ta think-"

_Wait, wait, wait, wait! Two days? _Asuna panicked and then blurted out, "the hell do you mean?"

"on whether ya guys… and you," he turned around and stared down at her, "will join tha guild or not."

The pause after the reply gave some time to think what he actually meant, before she realised that they were recruiting guild members. _Haha, they scared me, thought they were something akin to kidnappers or something._

"And of course, only two will be able leave the cave." The man stated again, a sadistic grin etched onto his face, and through the single brown eye that wasn't covered by his slightly curled brown hair. Moving around the small chamber he quickly drops a litter of weapons including iron swords, rapiers and rapiers before walking towards the exit. This time however he didn't blockade the exit, but stood there while the other man whispered something from his ear before putting on his hood and leaving.

The brown haired man frowned, "do I have to say start or something?"

The middle-aged man grabbed a small dagger and freed himself from the constraints. He stood up, blackish-grey hair was neatly pulled back with two strands that fell loosely on both sides of his head. His grin was probably has bad as the brown haired man. Scouring through the assorted weapons, he picked up a double handed, double edged iron sword. It ranged from his feet to his upper torso, as he turned towards the two family members.

"Please, spare the child!" he older man pleaded.

As if the man never heard a thing, using both hands over-arm, swung the heavy sword over his head that came down upon the screeching child. The blade tore seemed to have torn through the boy's body in half, however only scarlet mist sprayed across the cave floor, and saturated the Earth with 'blood'. Asuna looked at the three people stunned, 'how could someone be so merciless, so cruel?' was her thoughts. She didn't even notice the warm fluid dripping down from her forehead to the side of her nose then into her lips.

The boy cried out again trying to raise his arms to protect him, yet the ropes prevented him from doing so, his health bar was a deep red and the man's was a similar red. The man swung again, with the cleave damage lowering both HP bars no nothing. The pain tolerance option was set to a standard setting of one, replicating what they would normally feel in real life, only those, her herself who read through the entire starter's manual for the nerve gear itself knew about it. She doubt they did; even Asuna turned it back to one as any other setting would disrupt her sensory system- so the pain they felt was equivalent to getting cut in half.

Their muted cries were backed up by Asuna's own shriek. She quickly backed up against the wall, and noticed the brown haired man spectating the entire scene laugh.

The murderer of the two people turned to face her, ignoring the shattering polygons of the lives of the people. The microwave waves would surely fry the brains of the people who were most likely lying on hospital beds, with other family members waiting for them to wake up from a nightmare. Maybe nightmares are contagious, as when the heart monitors goes into a long dragged "beeeeeeep", it would be their turn.

Turning onto her, he slowly strutted across the small diameter of the cave circle. Asuna that was already backed up against the wall stood up, and tried to climb the wall in vain. Even if she did have her hands untied she doubt that she would be able to scale the wall. He discarded the great sword and picked up a dagger.

_A slow death? _

The man managed to pin her against the wall, one arm over her left shoulder and other one playing with the dagger in front of her.

"You know that the blood in your stomach won't ever disappear," he said as he cut the ropes, granting her freedom of movement. "Thank me later for that treat, mm?" He turned around and walked towards the 'guard'.

"Name's Kuradeel, nice to meet you" he offered his hand.

The brown hair simply told Kuradeel go somewhere else after accepting the guild's invitation. "A guild message will be sent globally when we progress more into the game. Go farm or something, I still have to sort this out. Boss never told me what to do if this happened. You were only meant to kill one of 'em, now I dunno how to test her…"

"Che, catch you later then." He winked at her before running off.

The man looked back at her for a good minute, as Asuna was frozen against the wall, her blood seemed to have frozen, but seemed to be unfreezing. And the blood kept warming until it boiled. Asuna's vision blurred flamed red.

"Uohh…"

"Huh?" the brown haired man questioned her first movement since Kuradeel whispered something that he couldn't hear.

"Uooohhh"

The man took a step closer wondering what to do, however Asuna's glare which seemed to stare into nothing bore into him, eyeing him like he was… something… to kill? An aura of killing intent undoubtly beamed from her, like she had a magical flame engulfing her.

Asuna bent forward, picking up the closest weapon, long thin sword, a rapier without breaking her gaze from the man.

_How could they?_

The man seemed to notice the scenario he was put in, and unsheathed his own weapon, or tried to. The rapid movement of the girl's feet was untraceable by his eyes as she darted forward. Swing the rapier that was made for piercing like a normal sword downward to his collarbone, and still managed to cut through him. He fell to one knee and at once, his health bar turned yellow.

One knows when he is completely outclassed, as he retreating in fear, almost tripping backwards from the velocity his is body. A tender hand caught his hair that threatened to uproot from his scalp. Maybe everything seemed to move slowly, or the adrenaline from being close to death allowed to man to process information quicker; at one moment his body was at a 70degree angle from the ground with the girl standing sideways towards him, hands outstretched to prevent him from falling, then his legs were 30degrees from the dirt with his torso being perpendicular to the ground. There was a moment of delay before he actually registered the girl facing him with one leg rooted into the floor and the other pressed down on his knees like she was using him as a rock to look over a cliff or something, except she observed him, and his eyes, and how scared they looked.

Her other hand which wasn't holding him in place altered the grip on the rapier, instead of holding it with the blade of the sword closer to her thumb; she held it so that the hilt was closer to her pinkie. The man didn't even know what she was planning to do, not even when it came down on him through his open mouth and through a decent amount of 'meat' before borrowing itself into the earth. Blood travelled down the rapier's blade as it pooled underneath him.

Asuna stood up straight, her normal hair that was tied back in a criss-cross pony tail from her face to the back of her head feel forward. A ruby colour tipped the ends, and she started to walk out the door.

_Absolutely nothing happened here_ she lied to herself.

…

There was a man hidden behind rocks, it was the one that the brown haired one that called boss; he smiled as he looked at a girl with a red cursor over her head walking lifelessly across the uneven grassland.

* * *

** AN:**

FFFFF, rage, this is the second time typing this. It didn't save when I clicked save and deleted this. Anyways, I'll stop doing previews, since poeple keep mistaking them for chapters... and I tend to change the chapter anyways :S And because it 'breaks the flow'? anyways, w/e.

Should I do the Asuna/Kirito meeting in Asuna's or Kirito's POV? I was thinking of Asuna, would be interesting to introduce Agro from her POV, and that bathroom scene... .! Also, who wants a yandere Asuna? Leave a review or PM to let me know!

Anyone wanna help me proof-read this?

* * *

Asuna: Guess what?

*Kirito scratches head*

Kirito: What?

Asuna: I asked you a question... what doesn't answer it...

Kirito: Umm... The snail that lived next door went horse for a moo?

*Asuna facepalms*

Asuna: No, I'm a vampire.

Dun dun dun~!


	3. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4 - Concurrence**

The town was lit up by lantern light-posts, people started closing stores as night-time came, people needed to sleep after all. Unfortunately unlike other MMOs one could not just leave their avatar standing there, and could not leave a shop open like a bot. Although a majority of the people have left, it also opened room for night stores, that sell more explicit tools and gears but at a much higher price.

The large courtyard was enclosed by buildings and small gardens, and occasionally some gardens had a tree. Underneath one particular tree that seemed to be isolated from the rest of the place sat a young man.

Night time was also when rats tend to come out. The sound or crunching bark as a body leaned against tree initiated talk from the teenager, "any news?" Kirito asked in a low voice.

"Depends if you have any money." The low voice sounded like it belonged to someone with a blocked nose. If you would carefully listen to it, one would also be able to tell it originated from a female.

"Don't be like that" Kirito sighed. Although Kirito was a solo player, he needed an information network, or someone a way to get information. That's where Argo came in; it was rare finding someone who would take on the job as an information broker. Such a job required a lot of experience and understanding of the world, and there was a lot of risk as trust between her and the client was only thing that allowed such trading to work.

Kirito and Argo both concluded each other as a beta tester, it was the only explanation of they could come up with that explained the skills and the way each other talk, there was just a hidden unsaid law to never ask about anything before the SAO incident; to mention anything from that moment of forced mass teleportation, or mass TP for short, was a taboo.

"Well, because I like having people owe me so, the first few player kills have happened, people are already to starting to PK, the first few deaths with the reason of being 'PKed' was registered on the tomb a few days ago"

Kirito tried to block out what she said by trying to raise both his open hands and palm his ears but Argo spoke so fast that Kirito could cover it up fast enough.

"Ugh"

"Tehehe" Argo smirked, and then proceeded to twisting around the tree and into Kirito's view. The two had more of a friend relationship rather than an acquaintance-type relationship. Her one side of her lips stretched to her ears and her trademark whiskers were visible.

"Really now?" Kirito asked casually, not wanting to ruin the cheery atmosphere that the two were currently in.

"Mm, also, more and more people are getting the hang of this game and learning, the death rate will most likely be logarithmic. It'll slow down after a while… hopefully," Argo's eyebrows pinched together as she frowned. The frown was wiped off her face and lit up again once she claimed that Kirito owed her two times now. Kirito could only groan again.

Kirito claimed his weapon upon completion of the quest after talking to Argo. The change from his original weapon compared to the new annealing blade contrasted highly. The quest was a unique quest that could only be completed once, thus all the unique quests have mostly been completed on the first level of Aincrad, as the beta testers knew most of the layout. The competitions for such rewards were too extreme, as if Coper did not show the extent of human greed, Kirito himself did.

Kirito abandoned Klein in order to race off ahead to collect the reserves of limited resources. Of course, Kirito offer Klein, but when he said he had an entire guild waiting for him, transferred from the previous game he was playing, the deal was off. If it was just him, or maybe two people, they would be able to sneak out of the city, and more importantly, able to cross the wilderness safely without attracting the attention of the mobs. If they did at such a low level, the lives of people could be forfeited.

In a way, the fact that Kirito was able to rationalise it as Klein ditching him for his own friends made the weight on Kirito's shoulders lighter.

_He'll be fine_ Kirito reassured himself.

Then there was another thing on his consciousness, the death of Coper. It wasn't his fault that he died, Coper had it upon himself when he tried to eliminate Kirito; it was just self-defence. In the situation of being outnumbered so much when the levels of the NPC mobs so close to the players themselves, the only way to survive is to overcome by the disaster by tactics and skill. Kirito was used to allowing the system assist him when he activated a skill, along with his ever so slight martial arts training. Not only did it increase his actual sword skills, but also kept him calm through the fight. It is common knowledge that panic leads to rash actions, leaving openings for people or monsters, to attack, such mistakes will accumulate and snowball before you finally pay for your mistake with your life.

Kirito viewed this world as his current world, rather than a game, but he also understood that people who were unable to accept that played SAO as a game. Criminal activity such as theft, murder and such would be at a higher rate. People getting away through the loops holes and lack of policing of the system was inevitable, such example as people were unable to report a harassment if they are tied up as they cannot open the menu. This was a MMO, even if it is a PvE, player versus environment; contact between players could not be constantly monitored. Only a few options could be toggled just by thinking, such as character health and status, and opening some view tools and such.

…

It had been around 3 weeks since the start of the game, approaching the end of the first month, but the first level has not been cleared; instead most of this first month was more dedicated to sorting out the game, organising communities and establishing networks of people which could be useful for the future. If the rate of clearance of the game stayed constant, it would no doubt take well over 8 to 9, possible a decade.

Hopefully the speed of clearance would increase exponentially as the death rate died down.

From Kirito's trusty information broker, the dungeon that led to the first boss room had been discovered and people were planning to map the area soon, and finally wrap up the first level and give hope and motivation for people, to show that such feat was possible and that people 'will' clear the game. Apparently there would be a meeting for those who wish to participate in the first boss fight in a few days.

This then led Kirito to have a final few days of grinding before the actual fight. The first level was cleared rather faster in the beta run, but things were different here, the cautiousness of everyone increased, thus delayed many people from taking risks that would at times prove to be a success. Kirito knew most things about the first few levels of Aincrad, but he also could tell that there had been many adjustments to things. Thus he warned Argo to mention somewhere in her book that the information put together by beta testers anonymously could be wrong.

The sound of fighting and metal against metal could be heard, the constant clanks of metal against metal echoed as sound travelled through the air and bounced off the walls.

Clink. Clank.

Clink…Clank…

Through the low lighting of the dungeon, it was possible to make out a slim figure; it wasn't short but shorter than him. The figure was fighting one of the stronger monsters in the dungeon, before he realized most of the POP in the area was extremely low. It was a wonder to him when he did not encounter anything for a good half an hour. Occasionally he would be able to spot one or two trash mobs which Kirito didn't even bother attacking, as the experience gained was not worth the trouble.

Kirito, with the exception of Argo, did not interact with many other players. Kirito was a solo player for a reason, it avoided many troubles that could arise in crowds, and especially if it was someone he was not so familiar with, if he knew them in real life prior to SAO, he might have considered tagging up, but so far he could see too many cons overthrowing the pros. It was a hindrance and it would also slow down his levelling.

Kirito watched as the player re-ruin the 'Ruined Kobold Trooper' without even getting hit, dodging just before the attack came, and attacked as soon as there was an opening, this required a great amount of skill and time studying the behaviour of the NPC. It was fairly obvious that the person here had been grinding for a long time.

The kobold had its arm raise, about to lower its cleaver, its eyes showed that it thought it had assured victory for itself, its tongue was outside its mouth, licking the saliva that seemed to gush out of its mouth defying laws of physics. The figure seemed to give a mute battle cry just before lunging forward; legs deeply rooted into the ground, bringing forward the other hand that was originally behind her back to support her balance and increase bodily control. Locking into place as the kobold impaled itself onto the rapier with minimal effort from the cloaked player; it shattered into blue glowing shapes.

Normally Kirito would have just left, it was considered rude in MMOs, and especially MMORPGs to just intrude into someone else's levelling area. It was like theft in broad daylight; doing so would be like saying, 'Ooi, look over here! I'm a dickhead and I like stealing other people's EXP. I'm an inconsiderate retard' or something of the sort. Such reputation would make it hard to progress effectively in the game, particularly in SAO, where the community was so realistic. You couldn't just log out and rage quit.

Everyone sought for a companion or a group; it was in the nature of humans to get together, even during the caveman era, to form tribes. Loneliness was something did not want, no matter how much they denied it. Maybe Kirito saw this as a chance, maybe he want stuck with Argo being his only friend. He would have considered Klein; however, he could not justify it for himself, as he thought he did not have the right to do so after abandoning him.

"Overkill is inefficient if you want-" Kirito started but was stopped as the individual he was talking to looked at him. Chestnut hair covered most of one eye, and the other was looking back at him, it seemed to examine him from head to toe, checking him out. The low lighting of the dungeon allowed Kirito to just make out the feminine features of the girls face.

The eyes that looked back at him was torn between anger, the look of wanting to rip something open, put it back again and then destroy it again, and guilt, the pleading of forgiveness to whatever deity or god that existed. The two emotions were spontaneously visible in the eyes, and Kirito was scared in a way, what could've happened?

Raising his hands signally his harmlessness, he was about to make an exit before the girl's eyes suddenly roll up, closing as she fell to the floor slowly, as it seemed like she was still trying to stand Kirito dashed forward managing stop her from falling completely into the dirt covered ground. The girl leaned onto his side of his thighs, knees on the ground and obviously unconscious. Lowering himself down, he took a quick look at the girl, before toggling the status view, more-so to check her HP for safety than the player status, but what could he do when he saw the red coloured cursor?

…

The temporary room Kirito used as his home he hired was not in the safe area, hence why the pay was extremely low for such a quality living. The dangers were minimal, as the farmer's room itself was considered a safe area, just anything outside was susceptible to hazards. The isolation provided by the house and location was good as it allowed his travelling to the dungeon easier compared to the inns in the main town. He already paid for a week and a half to stay in the upper floor of the house. The NPCs would only stay in their own area and never bother him.

Never was he gladder than now for the close proximity of his house relatively. Getting out of the dungeon was a disaster; his movement was slowed down by an extra weight, not that he'll ever mention that to the girl. They don't seem to take these weight jokes well, nor age, so he noted not to mention anything about age. The constant stirrings also made it hard to walk in a straight line. The travel time was well over 2hours that was more than double if he were travelling by himself.

Kirito wasn't even sure if you could've fallen unconscious in this game before. Okay, maybe he had, but he had never it happen. He would be forced to go to sleep at times after continuous fighting and training, he guessed that when awake in Aincrad, it was still like being awake in real life; just the information sent to the brain via the nerve gear changed his perception.

He laid her down on the only bed available which was normally reserved for him, and if he didn't return, it was used by another temporary resident of the place – Argo. Speaking of the devil, just as Kirito left the room in walks the cheeky person with whiskers on her face, Argo herself. Kirito's surprise was evident on his face and did not escape Argo's notice. Even if she was not used to deciphering facial expressions due to her profession, one would be able to clearly note the out-of-character-Kirito.

"Ara?" she interrogates, "what's up with that face"

_Oh what now… _Kirito panics and manages to stutter, "n-n-nothing." He then proceeds to grabbing Argo on the shoulder and turn her away from the bedroom. He definitely does not want the two to meet. It wasn't as if Argo was his wife and there was another woman in his bed. _No no no, never._

Quite a bad move as Argo countered, "I wanna sleep" as she pretended to pout, a façade obviously as Argo was a nocturnal being, she roamed the streets in the night doing all kinds of shady business. Shrugging the hand off her shoulder she slowly strolled to the room, while keeping an eye on Kirito and secretly sniggering at his comical attempt to stop her. "Not like there's a girl in the room"

De ja vu?

"Hmm, Kirito plus girl?" she continued, "no no no, never"

De ja vu times two.

Kirito couldn't help but run towards the door, blocking any further progress from Argo. It was childish, it meant he was hiding something but letting the two meet could be worth more trouble than good, he didn't even know why.

"So…" Argo crossed her arms, hmphed. There was no point in being pushy and seeing something Kirito obviously did not want her to see.

All worry was forgotten when the crashing and breaking of miscellaneous items behind the door was heard. Quickly opening the door to see what was wrong, he saw the girl scampering across the room, arms most likely bumped something that started a chain reaction, it was obvious she just woke up and dizzy from blood rushing to her head as she tumbled into a corner. She was frightened for some unknown reason to Kirito as she hugged herself. Upon detecting the entrance of Kirito, she practically leaped from one side of the room to embrace Kirito in a hug, before tears started to cascade down her face.

"Sorry… Sorry, I… Sorry, but, sorry, didn't… sorry…" the girl chanted. Kirito originally had plans to interrogate her about the red status, which could only be achieved through player killing, but seeing the girl break down in-front of him, many conclusions were drawn without a single word being uttered.

The best thing that he could come up with was its ok, before returning the embrace.

"Re…really?" the hands clutched tighter near Kirito's shoulder blades, the cloth seemed to constrict his breathing as it felt a couple of sizes too small.

"Mm"

Argo took a quick glance in the room; old habits die hard, and took her leave. The girl continued to cry for a while before her legs gave out and slumped towards the ground. It was a pitiful sight; one Kirito did not want to see.

Once Asuna's heart rate calmed, breathing straightened out, he had led her out of the bedroom to the table which was more appropriate for a conversation. It was sort of weird, he had only known Asuna, as the girl had told him, for over half an hour, yet after she told her story, or at least tried to through incoherent mumbles, both of them felt as if a bond was formed.

It was apparent for Asuna, after the psychological aftermath of murder, the unstable mind needed something to clutch onto, some concrete support, without it the mind would have crumbled into nothing, leaving the girl as an empty husk, a body without a brain basically, a zombie. Kirito had unknowingly become her saviour and guardian.

Her voice drifted off as she ran out of things to say, instead, her stomach did the talking for her. She almost jumped sitting on the wooden stool as she realised her next course of action. She materialised two bread buns which looked stale, and timidly offered one to Kirito. He took it and looked at it with a frown, while Asuna was nibbling on the black bread.

"Give me that for a sec," he told her. Gently reaching out, he took the food, materialized a vial of cream. He applied it on the cooked dough for her and gave it back before repeating it for himself. It was rare for people to have any rare ingredients; one of these included what he just used. It was obtained through a unique quest, 'Cow's counter attack' to be precise and it would probably be a long time before anyone trained their cooking levels high enough make anything outclassing rare ingredients. Kirito enjoyed it as much as he could, but the girl in front of him seemed to be doing a better job.

After sniffing the goods as if it were poisoned, she took a bite before she shed a tear, and for a moment it scared Kirito before she let out a repressed moan. She finished the food and smiled, "thank you." It was this moment Asuna decided to make sure that she would able to repay Kirito by making something just as good for him to eat.

They chatted for a bit more, and Kirito learned that she had never eating anything else but the stale bread, and a bit more of her MMORPG experience. She said this was the first game she had played, only because her brother left for a business trip overseas and she didn't want to let the opening day to go to waste.

Oh how that turned out.

For some reason, the shy personality did not fit the girl, it was only due to state of affairs that she was acting anything like so, she was opening up and be her normal self, and diverting from the hesitant, scared and almost introverted person she was when she woke up. Kirito was glad that in a mere hour he was able to help get the girl back on her feet.

Asuna eagerly accepted his over to use the bathroom, and while doing so, he opened the note that was left behind when Argo had left when Asuna awoke, the handwriting was scribbly and rushed as to be expected and read outloud quietly:

_Ya owe me some money, I'll collect it next time, or interest will double for each delayed day._

_Player meeting tomorrow after lunch, so gather around 3 Tolbana's fountain clearing, topic will most likely be the mapping and challenging the first level boss. _

_The organiser paid me a great deal to spread this information, even though I said I'd do it free this one time. He still insisted so who was I to not accept, well he does call himself a knight._

_It's about time I get some big job anyways… _

_-Argo_

It was great and everything that things seemed to be progressing, even though the chance of wiping was there, they had already spent enough time on the first level, it was time to step up the game. All Kirito had to do was to figure out what to do with the girl that hugged his arm like a teddy bear as they slept.

* * *

**AN:**

I'm sorry for the slow update... and it was a shorter chapter! Blame the lack of reviews (of course the reviews~) :(.

Anyways, I couldn't do the bathroom service scene, that would've been too cruel to Asuna. Speaking of her, the anime portrays her as a tsundere sort of character, which is sorta what the novel does, but also seems to make her weak...(maybe its just me). Do not fret, I'll make sure I'll give Asuna a twist in personality which you guys can all probably predict, cause I'm telling you now she will not be a guilty-ridden maiden.

I'm happy, I beat the anime to introducing Kuradeel (sp?), probably won't be able to do that with Yui (btw, fanfic's spelling suggestions for Yui has yuri listed... lol!), or anyone else. I'm slow ;_;. I need to write a plan, this story probably feels jumpy cause I'm writing it as it comes to mind, and I write for short time intervals before getting distracted, breaking my train of thought. D:

Also, I got rid of the anneal blade bidding business, so yea, this is fanfiction, and it won't stay this close to canon forever. Speaking of which, who liked that two year time skip? Or should I just do mini-time skips?

Leave a review to let me know what I need to do better to improve your reading experience, even though I'm writing for myself.

* * *

*Squeak Squeak*

Argo: I can hear a rat

Kirito: Yea, loud and clear.

Argo: Seriously...

*Squeak Squeak*

Kirito: -_-

*Asuna cosplaying as a rat jumps out from shadows*

Asuna: SQUEAKRAWR SQUEAKRAWR!

*Kirito faints*


	4. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 4-For you**

Asuna latching onto Kirito's arm could be due both due certain possessiveness and fear- frightened by any player, and NPC interaction. An insecure feeling swelled inside her chest cavity whenever she when Kirito momentarily leaves her side.

She had murdered someone, stabbed and killed him with her own hands. She was drowned in the victim's blood, it sprayed all over her. Her taste buds registered a coppery tang, and she was blinded red. She let emotions have the better of her, unleashing her anger on the man that was the very cause of the death of two innocent people. His death was quiet, silent. The man himself couldn't really grasp the fact that he was dying. There was no deathly wail when they died; Asuna had expected screams to haunt her head. In stories that she had read, the final cries of the dying victim normally echoes inside the skull non-stop, however there was a blank void inside her head, was she abnormal?

Asuna's next few nights belonged to an insomniac; the sin of murder and her blaming herself for not being able to save the young boy and his grandfather prevented any calamity of brain activity.

I'm not strong enough, was what she used to always tell herself. She had trained herself, levelling up at an unreal pace, but her heart did not harden up as much as her levels did, she wasn't has confident as she had become with her skills with a rapier, her state of mind was still shaky no matter how much she strained to do so.

Three strikes out versus third time lucky, Asuna encountered the latter when she fainted. Her mind could not cope with sleepless nights, and finally decided to give out. That that moment was when Kirito came, she wasn't a romanticist but it was like the prince saving the princess… sort of. It would have made her blush.

Normally.

Asuna warily eyed everyone that looked like them, with a certain degree of possessiveness, which Kirito was blindly oblivious to, walking with the other hand scratching his head, laughing off the awkwardness.

…

The two arrived at the open theatre, with stone steps acting as seats, arriving mid-sentence of the blue haired speaker.

"It has been long enough, it is time to progress!" The warrior like man stated as the two sat down, giving a quick glance in acknowledgement before going back to his talk, "I think, and you know, that it is our obligation to the rest of the community, to inspire those who are not next to us today at this moment; to tell the players of Sword Art Online, that we will free everyone!"

The knight grabbed his sword in one hand, and raised it such that the rays of noon high sun reflected it off and into his audience. It acted like a ray of hope, a fitting conclusion to his speech. Applauses were building up, however were quickly silenced by the footsteps of crunching gravel, and a man with a cactus head presented himself on stage.

"Sir knight if I may?" it sounded more demanding that polite. The knight seemed to stare at him, as if he had his plan or something disrupted, however quickly recomposed himself, and 'gladly' allowed the nuisance.

"What I'm going to say may not apply to everyone, but, I believe that there are a few of you who need to take off that innocent face, show us your dirty faces and kneel down in front of everyone and apologize."

A long moment filled with Kibaou's, as he introduced himself, tapping feet. Impatience finally getting to him, he continued, "for example you!"

A finger was raised and pointed directly at Kirito. "Look at you, not even ashamed of yourself; it's fairly obvious with that filthy slut next to you." Asuna felt Kirito tense, and saw his fist clench white. Visible anger was seen through his eyes.

_Who is he to blame people, it's not like the beta gamer's responsibility to carry and baby sit all the players… _Asuna thought, and realising that Kirito was probably one of these beta players. Letting Kirito lose however could result in severe consequences, the disbanding of this group being one. Everyone was anticipating the fall of the first boss…

"You deserve to die; you're the lowest of low, scrub and trash of the universe-"

The man was treading in deadly waters, his fingers shakily pointed at Kirito…

"-hell death is too good, but you'd only taint the world with your existence, if only you didn't exist in the first place!"

And then Asuna didn't care anymore, if anything she would have encouraged Kirito. Loosening the grip drew curiosity from Kirito, and he looked back at her. This small exchange allowed another man to intervene, thus ending the episode.

The knight seemed to sigh in relief.

"Ok, let's do this then." He confidently said, hoping to drive away the heavy atmosphere. "We shall meet together at the boss room before in a few hours, this should allow everyone to gather and assemble anything they need."

Major plans were explained and the group eventually scattered. Only a few people remained, a single hand to be exact. The bulky dark skinned man, Agil made acquaintance with Kirito and Asuna before walking off, saying that his party was waiting.

Argo leaned against a light post, crossing her arms while the knight apologized to Kirito and Asuna, "I hope that Kibaou did not offend you. His anger can be sympathized with, but he did go overboard. I ask for your forgiveness in his stead."

Kirito nodded and Asuna silently agreed with him.

"Names Diabel, see you at the battlegrounds!" And with such, he departed leaving the trio together.

Argo jumped forward, leaving her silent, unnoticed façade behind while. Circling Asuna as if she was a professor examining a lab rat, she let out a loud 'heehhhhhhhh', before smiling again.

"Argo, please to meet you again" Agro smiled.

"Ah, Asuna" was the reply, "sorry about before… I was just…that day"

"Don't worry! I was leaving soon anyways. Aren't you glad that I gave those books out for free, or you would've been in quiet a pinch."

It was later decided by Argo herself that she wouldn't be joining in on the frontline battles, as an information broker she did not expertise in that particular field. "Hey, about that IOU, how about we forget them over the course of a dinner tonight?"

Undeniable roars of some beast that was caged inside Argo's stomach went off, despite alert eyes that vanished before the blink of an eye. "Where to?"

_Huh… what did she catch onto?_ Asuna wondered

"It's lunchtime now, I said dinner." Kirito informed.

"Yea, but you owe me two." Argo smirked, knowing that her argument was won. Restaurants were expensive, as the Col income for everyone was low, this was the first level. Getting treated to two luxury meals was lethal, scratch that, an overkill to one's money pouch.

_Maybe it was just me._

…

After the bellies of a few particular people were filled, Argo bid the couple farewell, claiming that she had some urgent business to attend to. A quick wave before she disappear around a corner led Asuna to wonder if the petite green hair girl would have stitches.

"Let's go." Kirito told Asuna, more guiding tone than an order.

Stepping outside the boundaries of the 'safe-zone' was met with small hesitation, she already had her scaredy-cat fit when leaving Kirito's temporary home. She was on the verge of begging Kirito to just hide in the home, _"You're not going to stay here forever, might as well make the first step now."_

The sun hovered lowly on the horizon; orange light filtered the air due to the refraction of the sun and earth. Or so it was meant to be. "Ne, Kirito, aren't we late?"

His lips perched together. "About that," they neared the dungeon entrance. The area had already been mapped, yet Kirito took a peek around the corner, "do know about player status?"

A shake of a head indorsed Kirito to continue, "Green, yellow and red are located above a player's head when you want to view their health bar. Green is for normal players, who do not commit anything seen as a 'crime' by the system. Yellow is for basically for anything that is deemed a 'crime', with the exception of killing another player."

"Oh…"

"And for future reference, people are unable to see your status in a safe area, unless in a duel, however the instant you leave that area, and enter the wilderness it becomes public, people will treat you as a murderer most likely and possible execute you on spot, no one wants a PKer hanging around."

Asuna's face was full of worry, as the two darted from boulder to boulder inside the cave as they neared the boss room, with Kirito giving a quick head check just before they moved forward, "then that means I can't participate in boss fights."

"No." Kirito quickly reassured her, "You have nothing to worry about in a boss room. In boss rooms, players get a buff called 'Immunity to players', meaning no one can hurt you there, and after the boss is defeated, there is a teleported straight to the next area's main city, and obviously that is a safe area."

The gates of the first boss room was open, the entire raid group was there, consisted of around 5 to 6 parties. Diabel, the blue haired knight was vigilantly ordering the people around. The corpses of the kobolds piled around the pillars which supported the cave roof. Puddles of red formed around the dead bodies, and a distinct smell permeated the air.

A giant kobold, labelled Ill-fang the Kobold Lord roared as Diabel had two parties surround it and beat on it ceaselessly, slowly ticking away the bosses health. The rest were most likely ordered to supress the constant waves of minions the kobold lord summons.

The players were all puffing, body stressed to the maximum and health bars at a dangerously low level, but all seemed enlighten as Diabel stated, "We are almost done, one last hit and we will have succeeded!"

Asuna watched as Kirito's eyes widen, in horror, and traced his vision, which focused on the club morphing into a gigantic cleaver the kobold lord in its hands, and the smirk that pasted on Diabel's face.

"No, get back!" Kirito shouted, and manage to catch a few stray glances, but otherwise went ignored rather than unnoticed.

Diabel mid-air swung his sword overhead, but the unexpected buckler that the kobold had raised caused his attack to be nullified. He fell to the floor in an uncharismatic fashion; the kobold lord followed his defence with a downward cut. Members of the raid group flinched as dust rose and ground trembled.

Diabel had attempted to scramble from blade, but it only served in prolonging his pain. If he hadn't moved the blade would've have cut him clean in half vertically, however his desperate attempt had allowed the beast to cut him from underneath his ribcage.

Asuna for some bizarre reason took note at how detailed the innards of the person was, it spewed in a pool of blood in between the gap of his lungs and intestines, the gastric acid slowly burning the flesh as it leaked from the stomach pouch. Diabel clawed the floor with the one arm with still a hand attached to it as Kirito in the meantime ran forward, against the scattered players who had lost nerve after seeing the first death in the fight.

The way to obtain the loot from a boss vary from each one, the current boss dropped the loot to the party whoever performs the executing blow, however sometimes, there is a chest for the entire raid group to loot and sometimes it's the person who had dealt the most damage. The beta players had only managed to figure out the drop rule for the first few levels, no doubt that the mad creator of the game would put a twist in future boss battles.

Greed had caused the demise of the knight, the blood started to seep out of the cut veins at a constant rate, his heart stopped and struggles ceased.

The boss room seemed to be in disorder, there was no one commanding the groups, no one knew what to do…

"Switch!" breaking free from any sort of thoughts, Asuna went forward to assist Kirito in fighting the last phase of the boss. His health had regenerated as it life stole health, leaving it at a temptingly low health level.

Asuna leapt forward underneath the swinging arm, just as Kirito dodged sideways from the frontal cleave the kobold had initiated after blocking Kirito's first slash. Colours of visible spectrum appeared at multiple areas on the kobold's red body, and beyond human eyes, assisted by the system she unleashed her combo. The kobold stumbled backwards and noticed her presence and tried to back slash her with the momentum of the returning arm. "Switch!"

It wasn't every long for the monster to take its fall.

A chilling wind filled the emptiness which the sudden shattering of corpses dissipated into thin air. The dead bodies vanished only leaving the traces of crimson lifeblood which stained where they had died.

_Mantle of obscurity, Ill-fang's Cleaver_- along with evenly distributed col between the two rare item drops had appeared in the party inventory. People seemed to relax and Asuna seemed pleased, her felt like she had achieved something, this was her first official battle, it felt like she needed to celebrate.

Her breath was pulled out of her as Kirito grabbed her arms and ran. The portal to the next level seemed to open before them. It activated as the couple entered the circle, light glowed at the circumference a bright blue.

The swearing from a certain cactus head could not be ignored, and the casual salute of Agil was not left unnoticed by the two.

"Look, it's them again… The two who showed up late… a red status! Murderer!..."

…

Asuna had decided to shut up and stay quiet as Kirito quickly went around the town and resupplied at various stores. They left the town in less than 20minutes, encountering only one random player from the raid group, anger bore into their backs as Kirito just ignored him and she just walked pass.

The empty town would soon overflow with population. There was a mere 30minute delay before other players in level one whom didn't attend the boss fight would be allowed to enter the new city.

Kirito abruptly stopped, allowing the small distance the two had created to shorten. Kirito seemed to find the forest floor a lot more interesting as he kicked a relatively rock down the inclined plane which was adjacent to the faint path they were travelling on.

Asuna continued to look at him as he turned around, eyes opening at the time when the rock hit a trunk of a tree and started, "I'm sorry."

_What is he on about…?_

"I ran, I didn't know how to solve that situation, with everyone calling you a murderer." He continued.

_Oh._

"The situation was unexpected, we were meant to be there just at the end of the fight to leech some experience points,"

_Maybe it would've been funny if he had hurt his toe when kicking the rock._

"But now that this has happened, I don't know what will happen later. Please, I'll make it up to you, in the meantime, please accept my apology."

"It's not your fault…" Asuna stated.

"I know, but I want to make it up to you, otherwise I'll feel guilty." He said.

_I really don't know… _Asuna was bewildered, she was at loss of words, simply because of how stupid this boy, this baka was. It was her that he had saved, she owed him everything. If not she would be a shrimpled pile of flesh starting to cot at some cemetery, it hurt to even think about her saviour feeling guilty- over herself nevertheless.

"What do you think you're going to do? Playing innocent?" The third familiar voice interrupted. "You've been sold out, miss." Argo panted, as she appeared from the trees. "I didn't believe it at first, when he told me that you were a red player, I wasn't even going to investigate this, but Kirito gave it away when he said dinner."

"W-what?" Asuna had no idea what Argo was referring to.

"Don't you what me, a man saw you kill, he told me that he saw the bloodthirstiness in your eyes, it was so detailed and descriptions matching you were so accurate it was impossible to make up." Then changing her rough tone and targeted audience of one person, "don't trust her, she was the one who attacked first, the person she killed did absolutely nothing to her. Trust me." Argo leaned onto a tree.

They had a 10minute lead, and how Argo managed to track them was beyond Asuna, but more importantly what she was hearing now definitely did not make sense. Was she a murderer, but illusions painted in her own mind make her think otherwise? No way.

Kirito seemed to be stuck, Argo was just caring for him, and telling him potential dangers, as for Asuna, she was like…

_A burden._

That's right; she was a burden, for now. Something similar to a plan formed in her head.

"Wait for me…" she pleaded in a low voice. Kirito looked at her questioningly, but Asuna turned around and ran.

Kirito was about stop her, but Argo stood in-between the two. "Don't" Argo told him.

At the time the idea seemed great, to let Kirito do what he wanted before he was troubled by her, and eventually if destined they would meet again, which is what she hoped for, but what was her fate?

Asuna pondered; should she join the ALF? The creation of 'Aincrad Liberation force' was a well-known guild that has received positive feedback; they were a large group of people that primarily aimed to clear the game, with the founder being Sinker. The reason by their group was so large at the moment was people of the 'communist' type of approach, everything that anyone got was handed in to some sort of treasurer, then the goods would then be distributed among the players. Newbies who spent all their money were left without food, although requiring no nutrition; no one could fend of the starvation and the feelings that came with it. They would be willing to accept any willing workers under their command, but it limited her freedom

Or maybe she should become a solo player like Kirito, be a solitude creature, that way she could easily level up herself, quicker than if she was forced to party with a group that didn't know what they were doing, in that case they would slow her down and ultimately her goal. Soloing also had a great degree of freedom, you did not have to care about anyone but yourself, all the loot, money and everything you buy all belongs to yourself, but dangers were also present. No point in soloing if you end up dying.

The arguing of the two faded out, Asuna's pace slowed down as she looked through the canopy of leaves. Through them and behind clouds, the sun lit up the world.

There were many options open for her, she could choose any, but for now, she would not let a single tear drop.

* * *

**AN:**

A bit short... and took longer for me to write. WTF is this. Is shrimpled a word? it sounds like a word... its a word yea?

Oh, might not need editor... friend did the 1st chap and might do more.

Just curious, what would make a fanfic rated M? I mean T is for mature teens, and M is for mature adults, but what is the line between adults and teens?

Also, the themes, help me suggest some for this story so maybe i can haz more readers:

Romance (is it Asuto, Kirina, cause they lub each other obviously)?

Angst (Is there enough, can't have angst if I don't write it well)?

Hurt/comfort (Not really gonna write more of this... Ok, they are emo, they will hurt themselves. I lied.)?

Adventure (the future awaits, behold! It's SAO...)?

and w/e u think it should be...

On another note, school sucks. Full stop.

* * *

*Kicks rock down hill*

Asuna: whyumad? D:!

Kirito: I'm not... I'm sorry, the whole world knows that you're a murderer.

*Kirito cries*

*Asuna embraces and hugs Kirito*

Kirito: Tyvm.

Asuna: Don't worry, you're a murderer too.

*Blood pours out from a wound in Argo's head*

Argo: WTF did a rock come from?

*Dies*


	5. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 5- Wolf Tattoo**

"Nicholas the Renegade."

Kirito turned his head around slightly to look over his shoulder, arms draped over the backrest of the wooden bench, eyes staring quizzically at Argo, "Huh?"

"It's real."

"What is?" His eyes narrowed, rumours of a rare Christmas event spread, apparently that was going to drop a few rare items, one including what people would fight tooth and nail for. The object of everyone's desire was a revival object, apparently capable of reviving the dead. How the mechanisms of the item worked was still shrouded in mystery but worth of the item did not decrease the slightest. Along with the other bonus loot, this was one hell of an event; the problem was that no one knew where it was happening. After a short moment, the look faded into passiveness, "Good to know."

Argo pointed where snowy mountains were located, a blizzard brewed, snow would be deep, terrain hazardous. "What a great way to celebrate my Christmas," he muttered.

"Well, don't forget the competition you'll face, don't think I'm the only one who knows where the boss is going to spawn." Argo's deep voice paused for a second, "Ok, I don't owe you anything now."

Kirito couldn't really blame Argo for being careful around Asuna, she was a red player and he had not been a firsthand witness of what actually made her become a red player, unfortunately he trusted the girl too easily for his liking despite that her claims hasn't been claimed false.

It was after Asuna had run off on him, which led to him having a heated debate with Argo. The fire was quenched after a few days where Argo learnt that the man she had quoted her information from was most likely a con, and later on found out that the man had formed some sort of criminal gang. The relationship between Kirito and Argo smoothed out again and were back on friendly terms.

The glow from lighting of the massive Christmas tree in the center of the city illuminated Argo's hair a dark shade of green, before causing a shadow to fall over her face, masking her appearance once again as a tan-brown hoodie was pulled over the head.

Soon after, Kirito followed her exit, and headed in the direction of the event. It was tonight, and he would finally have a chance to take a grab at the prize.

…

Crunch… Crunch…

Each step Kirito made in the relied with the distinct sound of snowflakes grinding against each other as they were compressed. The snow reached just a few centimetres above Kirito's ankles, making each step a tough one.

Kirito wore a thick looking dark grey cloak, the insides padded with the fur of some white beast. It clung closely to the match pair of pants that could be seen underneath the outer garment due to the wind, provided some warmth excluding the face where the hoodie failed to protect his face from the icy wind. He didn't bother commenting on the numbing sensation.

Kirito continued to trudge through the snow, until space around him distorted, previously where surrounded by a thick forest disappeared from in front of him, the wind calm, and fixed his feet in the ground. He had found the invisible portal to this dimension, and it was for no other reason than the event boss.

Kirito left the forested area, and in front of him presented a great circular snow plain that was enclosed by the similar environment he had just exited. In the center stood erect was a glowing blue evergreen, despite the contradicting name, it was a beautiful view. It seemed that the leaves itself was glowing; it did not seem like artificial light was put there for a decoration, it was natural and It light up the night in an azure hue.

Walking forward the snow slowly thinned out, becoming less deep.

Crunch… Crunch-ch…

"…" Kirito panned his view back, panning his view across the forest line that was a fair distance behind him that the trees did not look like it was towering over you, however his in game abilities and senses would have allowed him to hear noises even if it were from afar.

_I'm just paranoid, no one is following me._ Kirito palmed the trunk of the tree which was wider than his height, feeling the rough texture of bark. His action triggered the event to start, the chiming of bells and galloping of what was assumed to be reindeers grew louder.

Kirito ran back from the tree tumbled forward, Nicolas the Renegade the landing of landing just where he was a moment ago, "Har, har, har!" It sounded a little too much like a pirate's laugh than Santa's. It dropped the sack that it was carrying over its shoulder, boxes of decorated presents tipping over backwards.

The boss was oversized, like many of the level bosses, 'it' looked down at Kirito and exposed his rotten teeth to Kirito, the face light blue, the colour of having blood drained from the face. _Maybe it was just the cold. _Kirito bemused to himself.

Santa had went on a diet and lost weight. The cloths draped loosely, the oversized coat exposed the relatively thin arms. The only thing that didn't look less threatening was the oversized fists. It was steadying itself for battle; the fists clenched and took a swing that seemed too fast for such a large… person.

Kirito was glad that the area did not downscale his level to a 'suitable' range, he was soloing and if his levels weren't as high, he would've stood no chance.

The fight was one on one, fortunately. The fight was a rinse and repeat for the first half. "Nik" dubbed by Kirito himself swung one arm down and then tried to grab him while he was dodging. This left a small opening of a few seconds no more than for Kirito to execute a series of blows before Nik managed to repel Kirito once again, growling in frustration as the giant made no success in hurting Kirito.

The tides turned after Nik summoned wave upon waves of minions, little elf like things. The charged towards him with high pitched battle cries, short swords raised high in the air. Kirito had to manage controlling the crowd along with dodging Nik's fists. His experience as a solo player dealing with massive groups of trash mobs since day one was becoming of use now.

After each wave was finished he was able to attack the boss, slowing chipping of the pixels of the health bar.

The renegade's health turned red, it was almost complete, and then the minion waves stopped coming. Gut instinct saved Kirito from greeding out in rushing the executing combo. Approximately five black blurs circled Kirito. He was instantly able to tell what they were.

_Heh, he probably ate the rest of the herd or something, he didn't need the whole group to carry him anymore- he did lose a lot of weight. _Kirito tried to shed some humour in this situation. Nik just sat back and watched his dearest deers, no pun intended, do the rest of the work.

The reindeers faded into existence, and walked sideways, tracing the circumference of a circle around Kirito, their legs disregarded the dead bodies of elves, sickening crunches of bones disregarded as the fight continued. They would charge in one after another, either missing Kirito or glancing him, then instantly followed up by another.

Every once in a while the dead corpses of the elves served as a hindrance for Kirito and he was able to behead one of the deers, after that the speed and co-ordination of the attacks dropped, and Kirito was able to pick them off one by one. The last one ran straight to him head on, like a martyr and managed to leave a long down the side of Kirito's arm, however it was nothing other than pain, it did not render the limb useless.

Nik seemed to have a merry stare when it died, it fell backwards and slumped against the evergreen, and leaves shook and fell down like rain. The moon high in the sky, it was deep within the night.

_Event Item- _There was a mysterious unopened box lying on the ground. Unlike the first boss, where loot was given to the party who dealt the last hit and instantly sent to the party loot where the items does not materialise, this one just dropped it, it was free for all to take.

"Finally." Kirito sighed, exhausted. He had slept half the day because he knew this would go deep into the night but the difficult of soloing had gotten to him.

"Finally," it was voiced from a female, from one of those mature, older plotting women. "now walk away, as my gratitude, I shall spare you from death."

Kirito looked around, holding the unopened box in his arms. The woman had wavy red hair, she wore a one piece dress-coat, with a decently high collar. How Kirito recognised her was the cross shaped spear. "Rosalie, leader of the Titan's hand."

"Oho, you know me?" Rosalie queried, one brow raised, the other hidden behind the side fringe. She was surrounded by a few men; it wasn't surprising to see a few players with a red status, they had wipe out a few guilds and killed the members, Kirito was able to recall the vague name of Silver Fang, probably hearing Argo talking to herself about it.

There were more men than he could count with his two hands, however, they were weak, and looked unskilled. The stances they held showed many openings and Kirito could have probably taken them on normally, even now he could.

Rosalie and the timid girl standing next to her were the real problem. Rosalie, although over confident with herself, had a good reason to, from various information networks, Rosalie was an extremely with the tipped weapon, a big shot in the underworld of SAO well known for her 'green' status' and devious use of tactics, bait.

Right now she had a yellow cursor but yellow cursors can fade in time if the player decides to go on a prohibition period long enough, it will eventually turn back. It was still unsure at the current time whether the red status was permanent. Her well known green status was obviously discarded at the moment as the girl standing behind her would serve as a much more efficient bait.

Who would expect a young girl like her, short twin ponytails that sprout from the side of the head, the brown hair tied by 'cute' red beads.

_Beast tamer_ Kirito thought to himself quickly, the blue dragon wrapped around the child's next acting as a scarf, ferocity and obedience present in the eyes, the latter directed for… he, she, it's master, gender did not really matter.

Kirito put on a façade, he could not show fear. His items and gears were worn out from the fight, and could easily break soon, his weapons required immediate maintenance. He had to play his cards carefully, he could not just hand over goods without a reason, it would be too submissive and be would then be taken advantage of.

Kirito levelled his arm in front of him, presenting the untouched box in his open palm. Rosalie herself closed the gap between them with uncoordinated shuffling behind her. Kirito smiled when she made a grab for it, Kirito swerved his hand to the side, Rosalie's hand meeting empty space. Kirito smiled, "For her."

Kirito gestured to the beast tamer.

"Oh, you're in no position to argue. I was being merciful, hand it over or you die." She threatened, "just count the numbers."

"I know, just me is enough, I'm a solo player." Kirito replied, "I doubt that the group of you couldn't defeat the boss."

"You're weakened, I could kill you."

"But you'd need your pawns to do that, I can probably kill them all before you manage to kill me. Would it be worth it?"

"Che…"

"I'm willing to trade, this is an event items, you won't be able to get it again, but you can always scare another girl to do your bidding." Kirito knew when he had won the debate.

Kirito threw the item box into Rosalie's hand, and walked past her shoulders barely brushing. The little girl seemed to be at loss of what to do, continuously looking back and forth between her previously leader and this new stranger who claimed her.

Rosalie smirked at her success, and tapped the box to use it. The box unravelled and the only item that she received was an ingredient, a rare ingredient, that had two circular rings locked together, one had an arrow, with the arrowhead pointing away from the base in the same plane and the other one was similar, instead of an arrow, this ring was a plus sign.

Rosalie could only curse as she watched the two disappear into the web of white trees, the girl trailing Kirito, too late to do anything.

Little did she know it was her last time cursing.

…

The girl was invited into Kirito's rented room, or more like had no choice but to follow Kirito, which kept a poker face even when the beast snarled threateningly at him. The room was plain, a single bed in the middle, with a plain black and white cover, and a study table, which seemed to be out of context with the rest of the room. Kirito found comfort in a seat next to the end of the bed, while gesturing the girl to sit on the more cushioned bed.

"Wha… how do you wi..wish me to address you as m…master?" the girl stuttered.

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" the girl panicked.

"What's your name?" asked Kirito.

"Silic… ca sir."

A stern look registered on Kirito's face, the questions was not really why is she acting like this, what made her like this, it was obvious, straightforward and pedestrian. The things the Titan's Hand had made her undergo had obviously induced a mental trauma.

A community that started off as gamers had changed; people did things they would have never thought about doing in the real world. The lack of policing and laws in the world revealed the true nature of humans, willing to do anything to achieve for, and satisfy themselves.

Should it be like this, where everyone care for themselves, instead of where people should care about each other? It was the only questions that proved to Kirito himself that he was still sane, that he still held onto and believed the morals before entering Aincrad.

"Silica, go sleep; you don't serve anyone. You can say you're free." Kirito said.

"Free?" Silica questioned.

"Yes, I'll be gone tomorrow." Kirito told her.

"But… but… I don't… what am I meant to… do?"

Kirito face palmed, of course the girl wouldn't know what to do, what he was thinking. Her Aincrad life was basically led by someone else._ Oh, ffs._ Kirito sighed. He had taken her away from Titan's Grip because it was a 'two bird with one stone' situation, _the plan was to save her and get myself out of trouble. _

Kirito tried to argue himself to just leave the girl alone but his guilty consciousness would not back down, as well as the fact that this Silica girl looked too much like Suguha, it reminded himself too much of his very own sister for him to abandon.

Silica had been freed from a living hell of being used as a pawn and play toy, by a complete stranger she didn't know, she was certainly grateful but naivety was no longer in her personality, all the naivety she had at the start of the game, her childish innocent was taken from her. She couldn't suddenly bring herself to trust such man, but would have to justify to herself somehow to stay with the man or she would most likely be used by someone else. Kirito looked fine… he was just a boy, he was unlike the men that she was previously with.

"Please… stay with… me…" Silica pleaded.

"Ok, now go to sleep." Kirito cursed himself for being too kind.

…

The next day was woken by the normal lunchtime rush, heavy traffic of people outside in the city made it impossible to stay asleep. Silica had fallen asleep on the bed while Kirito had nodded off on the chair. When he opened his eyes, the figure was nowhere to be seen, for a moment Kirito had thought his goodwill was for naught, until the girl walked back into the room, dressed in a casual attire of a black singlet and skirt that hung halfway down the thigh. Kirito had also wondered if the knee high stockings were needed but refrained from asking.

The inn was nice, it had a dining area, and breakfast was served. Kirito had chosen a sandwich that looked similar to a toasted cheese ham slice, with milk. He did not question what type of meat it was, while Silica had been content nibbling on normal white bread.

An NPC waitress came around, and handed him a folded paper tablet, which unfolded to show that it was filled with text.

The one thing Kirito loved about cities was that there were newspapers. Public information that were created by players, allowed mass information distribution. The newspapers were created by players, similar to real world; people would gather and buy stories from others. The lack of ability to instantly communicate in SAO had increased the importance of information and news distribution. If he was near the wilderness, such luxuries would be harder to obtain.

The newspaper network was massive and supported by the system, so anyone who had access to an NPC information broker could receive the information, although it was mostly trivial and the information can find easily be found if desired.

The heading of the news was what caught Kirito's attention. Titan's Hand, destroyed, the article underneath wrote:

_The Christmas event although a let-down for the majority of players who seeked for the event, by the time the location of the event was discovered and made public, it had already ended. Groups of selfish bandits and players without sportsmanship and consideration of others has once again hogged the top quality items of Aincrad._

_However, leader of the now deceased group, Rosalie managed to obtain the event item, but it was stolen from her dead body. _

_"It was a slaughter." A bystander, Klein, header of Fuurinkazan told us. _

_From the information that was gathered, we were able to summarise the events that had led to this, from Klein's point of view, two black guilds, and one namely Titan's hand and the other unknown had decided to fight over this object. It was three versus over a dozen men, but the fight was one sided. _

_Once slain, the corpses were all stripped of belonging, items and money. It appears another dangerous group has revealed themselves. Due to the weather and time of night, he descriptions of the three are unclear, it was possible to make out from the distance the witness, the criminals had a uniform over their clothes: a dull silver cloak with an oversized hood, which was held together from the collar to collarbone by something that looked like a hairnet, and the cloak hung slackly below the chest. The right arm does not have a sleeve, and on the shoulder was a tattoo engraved into the flesh, an abstract symbol of a bloodthirsty wolf head._

_The two larger figures seemed to flank a smaller one which we conclude to be in command of the fight. They both used identical broadswords and the one who was in command excelled in the arts of a rapier. Read more next page._

* * *

**AN:**

You guys can blame school for slow update. Originally I planned to post this after the weekends so no one updates and it won't be pushed to the bottom of the page the next day, but I can't be bothered doing it later... so less views -less reviews -less motivation for me. Meh.

I dunno, it seems like nothing happens in my story, half of it was the fight D:! Anyway's, I want you guys to point out anything I havent addressed yet, for example the guy from the 2nd chapter. I have plans for filling in the unknowns but u guys point them out will prevent me from forgetting to write about something.

BTW, have u guys read the oneshot i tried to write? 'Happily Ever After'? I have to promote it here or it'll never get anymore views. I think no one writes one shots is because less poeple read it because you cant bump in fanfic.

I also need to make a better cover for this story... it's really lame atm.

Hope you enjoy and stay in tune to the next chapter!

* * *

*Yop bows head in apology for slow update*

Asuna: BOW BEFORE ME AUTHOR :D

Silica: You killed Rosalie... she will huant you as a ghost.

*Ghost sound: Oooooo Ooooooooohhh ooooohhhhhh!*

Asuna: Eek!

Silica: Mouu, don't be mean Yop.

*Ghost sound: Uooooohhhhh! OOOUUUUUHHHHHHH!*

Asuna: Kyaa~~~ D:! ;_;!


End file.
